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December, 2008

Oricon, a company that originally ranked music sales (think Japanese Billboard), but nowadays ranks almost everything related to Japanese entertainment, has released the 2008 annual sales data on various types of media, including 2008 manga rankings.

Heisei Democracy, a blog "devoted to the latest in news, reviews, and opinion on the two-dimensional culture of Japan, with particular emphasis on the media (anime, manga, console games), ero (eroge, eroanime, eromanga, doujinshi), and hobby (PVC figures, garage kits, analog games) sides of the industry, and the culture and events surrounding them", has been inactive since September 2008. A few days ago, an announcement was posted announcing that the blog will resume operation.

Also, Ikimashou.net, another great otaku blog covering Japanese anime, manga, games and otaku culture in general that got its domain stolen at the beginning of 2008, is now back in action as well, and has made a post detailing what happened to the blog.

In late 2006, Leiji Matsumoto accused J-Pop singer Noriyuki Makihara of plagiarizing lyrics from the Galaxy Express 999 manga, and announced that he would like to hear an apology from Makihara. In 2007, Makihara Noriyuk filed a 22 million yen lawsuit against Leiji Matsumoto for "repeated demands for an apology and false accusation." Now Daily Yomiuri Online reports that the Tokyo District Court has ordered Leiji Matsumoto to pay 2.2 million yen in compensation for defaming Noriyuki Makihara:

The Tokyo District Court has ordered renowned manga artist Reiji Matsumoto to pay 2.2 million yen in compensation for defaming popular singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara in a case concerning Matsumoto's claim that Makihara wrote a song using words taken from one of his comics without permission.

Presiding Judge Misao Shimizu ruled Friday the phrases in question could not be considered overly similar and he ordered Matsumoto to pay compensation for saying on a TV program that Makihara had admitted plagiarism.

During this interview, Manry talks about the recently launched site's focus, its user-driven content and extensive wiki-style database, and its relationship with sibling sites Giant Bomb (gaming) and Comic Vine (comics). In addition to Anime Vice, her writing and reporting can be found in Anime Insider and has appeared online at theOtaku.com and animeOnline.com.

Manga Top 250 Volumes and Top 100 Series for November 2008
- By Matt Blind

If you post something often enough, and on a regular schedule, you don't have to keep making excuses and explaining yourself. Of course, I'm not at the point where these monthly reports can be considered regular-and-timely. Yet. (all apologies to Shawn; we'll do better next year!) ...but I think I have done enough of these (in a row) (and quite recently) that we can skip past an intro to:

Manga Top 250 Volumes and Top 100 Series for October 2008
- By Matt Blind

For those of you following along with the home game, November '08 will follow within the week -- and I've something special in the works for December/The End of The Year. But October numbers come first:

TORRANCE, CA - December 10, 2008 - Deux Press, the yaoi imprint of Aurora Publishing, has picked up the title Cigarette Kisses by Nase Yamato. Originally, Boysenberry Books, the yaoi imprint of Broccoli Books, was to release this title. However, with Broccoli Books shutting down, the title will be dropped from their list. Lucky for all of the Nase Yamato fans, Deux Press (who is already releasing her Take Me to Heaven in January 2009) was able to acquire the rights to the title, and fans can expect the manga to be released sometime in the second half of 2009.

JAST USA announces that Princess Waltz, its new PC dating-sim/card battle game for adults, has shipped and is available on PC DVD-ROM as well as Internet Download Edition. Princess Waltz is one of the most popular adult anime-style PC games to be released in recent years in Japan, and it features high quality graphics, a compelling fantasy storyline w/innovative card battle action, and a degree of erotic and emotional intensity that only Japan's love-simulation games can bring.

Placement Validates How Well Integrated Manga And Anime Ninja Character Has Become In Popular Culture

San Francisco, CA, December 4, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that NARUTO has been named by Yahoo! as the Number 7 most-searched term in 2008, as reported by the Yahoo! 2008 Year In Review Top 10 Search list. The list, which is available at YearInReview.yahoo.com, provides insights about popular culture and what Yahoo! searchers cared about most throughout 2008. The spunky ninja-in-training NARUTO appears on the list beside future President Barack Obama, fan favorites American Idol and the WWE and celebrities and personalities such as Miley Cyrus, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Comic book publishing studio eigoMANGA (http://www.eigomanga.com), has announced the upcoming release of a special graphic novel publication — Sakura Pakk Versus Rumble Pak Graphic Novel — for the first time features a combination of shonen (male-oriented) and shojo (female-oriented) stories from Sakura Pakk (http://www.SakuraPakk.com) and Rumble Pak (http://www.RumblePak.com).